Not sure what the situation was like in 1906, but in my brother's final year at school in 1989, a pair of twins were offered places at Oxford University conditional on getting two D grades in their A levels. They were the brightest kids in their year (I think my brother was next).
Didn't Jude Fawley try but fail to go to Christminster (fictional name for Oxford) University in Jude the Obscure? I have not read the book, just watched the film. He was a working class man. He had taught himself Latin, which was a requirement to go to university then.